Chris Christie's appointee will serve just 129 days in the Senate - the fourth shortest stint among the 65 U.S. Senators to serve from New Jersey since statehood

On Thursday afternoon Chris Christie announced he would appoint his long-time friend Jeff Chiesa to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Frank Lautenberg on Monday.

Chiesa - who served as New Jersey's Attorney General for the last 17 months - will leave his post when he is officially appointed on June 10th.

Although Governor Christie said he would welcome Chiesa to run in the October 16th special election to fill the remainder of Lautenberg's term (ending January 3, 2015), the state Attorney General said he was not interested in doing so.

As a result, Chiesa will follow the longest-serving New Jersey Senator of all time with the fourth shortest Senate tenure in state history.

Lautenberg served 28 years, 5 months, and 9 days (10,388 days) during his two periods representing the state in the Senate from 1982-2001 and 2003-2013.

That is nearly four and a half more years than the second-longest serving Senator in New Jersey history - Republican Clifford Case, who served four full terms from 1955-1979 (8,767 days).

Chiesa, meanwhile, will serve from June 10th through October 16th for a period of just 129 days.

The only Senators to serve fewer days in the history of the Garden State are:

· Democrat James Wall: 49 days (January 14 to March 3, 1863). Wall was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Democrat John Thompson and then failed in his reelection bid. Wall was the former mayor of Burlington, New Jersey.

· Republican Richard Field: 55 days (November 21, 1862 to January 14, 1863). Field was appointed after the death of Thompson and was succeeded by the aforementioned Wall after his election to the seat. Field was a former state assemblyman and attorney general and later became a United States District Court judge.

· Federalist Franklin Davenport: 89 days (December 5, 1798 to March 3, 1799). Davenport was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Rutherfurd. Davenport had just been elected to the state's 5th Congressional District, and served one term from 1799-1801.

Three other New Jersey Senators served less than one year: Republican Nicholas Brady (252 days in 1982), Democrat John Milton (295 days in 1938), and Republican Dwight Morrow (307 days from 1930-1931).

The average length of service across the five-plus dozen Senators in state history is 2,503 days, or just shy of seven years.

January's preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show Minnesota's unemployment rate of 3.7 percent was once again lower than Wisconsin's 5.0 percent. That marks the 73rd consecutive month in which Minnesota has boasted a lower jobless rate than its neighbor to the east dating back to January 2009 including each of the last 67 months by at least one point. The Gopher State has now edged Wisconsin in the employment border battle for 204 of the last 216 months dating back to February 1997. Wisconsin only managed a lower unemployment rate than Minnesota for the 12 months of 2008 during this 18-year span.

For each of the last 24 presidential elections since 1920, North and South Dakota have voted in unison - casting their ballots for the same nominee. For 21 of these cycles (including each of the last 12 since 1968) Republicans carried the Dakotas with just three cycles going to the Democrats (1932, 1936, and 1964). This streak stands in contrast to the first few decades after statehood when North and South Dakota supported different nominees in four of the first seven cycles. North Dakota narrowly backed Populist James Weaver in 1892 while South Dakota voted for incumbent Republican Benjamin Harrison. In 1896, it was North Dakota backing GOPer William McKinley while South Dakota supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan by less than 200 votes. North Dakota voted Democratic in 1912 and 1916 supporting Woodrow Wilson while South Dakota cast its Electoral College votes for Progressive Teddy Roosevelt and Republican Charles Hughes respectively.